Are financial crises an inevitable feature of capitalism? Must the government rescue the system when huge crises occur? In his book Stress Test, Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and US Treasury secretary during the 2007-09 crisis, answers “yes” to both questions. Yet these answers also harm the legitimacy of a market economy. It is bad enough if capitalism is crisis-prone. It is worse still if the state feels obliged to rescue those whose folly or criminality caused the damage, to protect the innocent.
金融危機是資本主義的一個不可避免的特點嗎？當嚴重危機爆發，政府必須救助金融體系嗎？蒂莫西?蓋特納(Timothy Geithner)在他的《壓力測試》(Stress Test)一書中，對這兩個問題給出了肯定答案。2007至2009年危機期間，蓋特納曾任紐約聯邦儲備銀行(Federal Reserve Bank of New York)行長、美國財政部長。但這樣的答案也有損市場經濟的合法性。資本主義易發生危機，這一點已經夠糟糕了。而對于那些用愚蠢或犯罪行為給經濟造成損害的人，政府感覺必須提供救助，從而保護無辜民眾，這一點就更加糟糕了。